On October 7, 2007 I decided to visit the largest abandoned building in the city of Detroit - the Packard Motor Car Company. Packard was, prior to World War II, one of the premier luxury car manufacturers in the world. During the war they produced aircraft engines under license from Rolls Royce. Like many of the remaining American auto makers in the 1950's, Packard struggled to survive, while Ford and General Motors engaged in an aggressive price war. The acquisition of Studebaker with its larger dealer network in 1954 failed to save the company, and in 1956 a court order closed the Packard plant for good. The Packard name survived two more model years on modified Studebaker offerings with a Packard nameplate, then vanished from the automotive marketplace altogether.

Update - 12/14/2007 - I received an email today from the owner of Chemical Processing, Inc., who informed me that the Packard complex is not entirely vacant. Chemical Processing, Inc. has occupied a portion of the old 120 plant on Concord Street since 1958. They have actually been there longer than Packard was!

Before looking at the photos I took in 2007, here is how the Packard facility looked in 1956. This is a view of the offices along East Grand Boulevard: